McCain upbeat amid confusion

Anne Davies, Washington

REPUBLICAN presidential candidate John McCain's campaign, which has struggled to frame a consistent response to the US economic crisis, has put out more mixed signals before this week's final debate with Democratic rival Barack Obama.

Despite signals that Senator McCain would announce stimulatory measures such as tax cuts after a weekend of meetings, his campaign indicated yesterday that he would not have any more proposals this week unless developments called for some.

Visiting a volunteer phone bank near his northern Virginia headquarters, Senator McCain declined to answer a question from a reporter about what he was considering. Outside his campaign office, Senator McCain told volunteers and workers he intended to "whip" Senator Obama's "you-know-what" in the debate. "We're a couple of points down, OK, nationally, but we're right in this game," Senator McCain said to cheers.

On Saturday, the McCain campaign was considering a range of economic ideas, one of his advisers indicated.

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On Sunday, on the CBS News program Face the Nation, McCain confidant Lindsey Graham confirmed a report on politico.com that the candidate was weighing up tax cuts on investors' capital gains and dividends. "It will be a very comprehensive approach to jump-start the economy," Senator Graham said.

But McCain advisers later said they did not know why Senator Graham said that. One noted that Senator McCain's economic plan already would cut capital gains and dividend tax rates, by extending President George Bush's 2003 tax cuts.

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Campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds said: "We do not have any immediate plans to announce any policy proposals outside of the proposals that John McCain has announced, and the certain proposals that would result as economic news continues to come our way."

Senator McCain has struggled to win vote on the issue of the economy. Polls consistently show that Senator Obama enjoys the traditional Democratic advantage of being more trusted to run the economy in hard times.

The two face off at Hofstra University in Hemstead, New York, on Thursday, Australian time, in their third debate, one confined to domestic issues.

The McCain campaign has come under attack for its mixed messages: on-again, off-again attacks on Senator Obama's associations have distracted from his economic message. The debate will be his best chance to get that message  which already includes lower corporate taxes and maintaining current tax scales  across to voters.

"The economy has hurt us a little bit in the last week or two, but in the last few days we've seen it come back up because they want experience," Senator McCain said.

The latest Gallup national tracking poll shows Senator McCain has closed the gap slightly. Senator Obama leads 50% to 43%, a narrowing of the 11-point margin last week.

However, two battleground state polls  in Colorado and Pennsylvania  showed Senator Obama with double-digit leads.

He also held a 53%-43% lead yesterday in the ABC News/Washington Post survey, whose authors said no presidential candidate has been able to come back from an October deficit this large in polls dating back to 1936.